Canada Railway Carloadings: April 2017

The volume of rail freight carried in Canada totalled 31.4 million tonnes in April, up 11.3 per cent from the same month last year, according to Statistics Canada Wednesday.

Freight originating in Canada increased 10.6 per cent in April from the same month a year earlier, to 28.3 million tonnes. Non-intermodal freight increased 8.5 per cent to 304,000 carloads in April. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totalled 25.3 million tonnes, up 11.3 per cent from the same month last year.

Railway Carloadings, Canada

Tonnages of coal (+18.4%), iron ores and concentrates (+9.6%), potash (+26.5%), and wheat (+17.9%) were up in April compared with the same month a year earlier, said StatsCan.

Conversely, tonnages of sulphur (-22.5%), other refined petroleum and coal products (-21.1%), newsprint (-23.3%) and wood chips (-21.2%) shipped by rail declined in April on a year-over-year basis.